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Last month’s poll question was, What did you think of your parents when you were in seventh grade?\u00a0 <\/strong>Interestingly, this poll got the fewest number of responses ever–a mere 13, compared to past responses of 50 or more.\u00a0<\/p>\n Maybe I didn’t publicize it right, or maybe people are not interested in remembering what they thought about their parents at that age.\u00a0 Or maybe some of us are<\/em> parents and don’t want to go through that Looking Glass.\u00a0<\/p>\n In any case, here’s the report:<\/p>\n The majority of voters (42%), wrote that their parents were<\/p>\n \u201cPretty nice, helpful and loving, whether I saw it at the time or not.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a015% voted, \u201cProbably they had my best interest at heart, but so they were annoying\/ critical\/ over-protective!\u201d<\/p>\n Nobody said that their parents were easy to scam, but two people (15%) replied, \u201cMy parents\u2026oh, you mean the people who fed me sometimes?\u201d<\/p>\n Three people replied that their answers were too complex for multiple choice, and one respondent, a friend with an interesting mind, wrote,<\/p>\n \u201c7th Grade pretty much drove home my creeping suspicion that my parents were neither all powerful, all knowing, nor able to take care of every problem I might have, as great as they were. Quite the bummer.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Does that sum it up?\u00a0 Scratch the surface?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 Parenting and being parented can be such loaded experiences\u2014it\u2019s a wonder how we don\u2019t crack at the weight of it all.\u00a0<\/p>\n I asked this question because in Nice and Mean<\/em>, Marina and Sachi, the protagonists, have very different relationships to their parents.\u00a0 Marina, the mean girl referred to in the title, has a mom who is often quite narcissistic, which fuels Marina\u2019s anger.\u00a0 Sachi, the nice girl,\u00a0is Indian, and her parents can be strict about many things, but there\u2019s more love than in Marina\u2019s relationship with her parents.\u00a0 There are just so many things that influence a parenting experience\u2014the parent\u2019s job, financial situation, feelings about their own place in the birth order, relation to their new home, etc. etc.\u00a0 Maybe this poll drew the fewest votes because it\u2019s all too complex for multiple-choice.\u00a0<\/p>\n Onward, then!\u00a0 This month: Nice people are\u2026.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Complex, potentially, but hopefully, less loaded.<\/p>\n